My Toddler’s Got Soul

Don’t tell my husband, but to make end’s meet, my daughter’s been playing the blues in smoky, crowded bars on the East Coast since 12 months old…

What?? I’m kidding.

Really.

My kid doesn’t play in smoky bars. (She does have standards, after all.) Nor is she helping to support our family financially.

But she does play the blues in our living room… with the help of the Leapfrog Learn and Groove Musical Table.

My toddler received her “music” table at her first birthday. At that time that she received it as a gift, she was not yet able to walk. She was just beginning to appreciate music and music-making using, mostly, items around the house that were not intended as instruments, so I knew this table would be perfect

Along with being made by the great educational toy company, Leapfrog, I was drawn to this table’s promise of 15 activities and over 40 songs and melodies.

Some other things I came to like about this table:

With the legs attached, my daughter could use this table to practice standing.

It’s musical songs and activities can be performed in English or Spanish.

The legs can be attached for standing toddlers or removed for infants.

The volume for the songs and activities on the table can easily be adjusted.

It can be used and appreciated by children of a variety of ages. Now that my daughter is older (24 months), she continues to use her table, though now, rather than playing the music only, she’s also interested in the words, the ABCs, and counting from 1-10.

Perhaps the only thing I don’t like about this table is that even with all of the songs and activities available, in the beginning, my toddler often had a challenging time accessing all songs and activities on her own. So without my help, I would get headaches from hearing the same trombone and songs played over and over and over and over and over again.

Would I recommend this table to other parents? Yes, I would recommend this table to parents of, particularly, younger toddlers who enjoy hearing and making music. At only $35, it’s a great toy that will serve both parents and toddlers well.

Jessica lives in the Washington, DC metropolitan area with her husband and two girls. Once upon a time, pre-motherhood, she did many things as a “serious-looking” woman who managed to successfully balance a reality TV addiction with a career and academic pursuits. She's now a serious-acting woman whose primary job is raising her children. She writes, reads, fantasizes about minivans, and takes midday naps. She enjoys (among many other things) dancing to 80s music, photography, laughing out loud (at, usually, inappropriate moments), and writing about writing, being a writer, and becoming fearless on her blog Jessica F. Hinton

1 COMMENT

We got this for our daughter for Christmas and she was 6 months then. She’s an earlier crawler and cruiser but even if you can’t pull up the legs can come off and you can sit it on the floor. This was great for her age. She loves hitting all of the different buttons and flipping the page on the book in the middle. She LOVES dancing to all the music. I also have a 2 1/2 yr old who gets quite a kick out of it.